Pan Lei
Local cultural commentator and academic Pan Lei recounted his memories of seeing Hong at the GHA After Party in 2016. In that year, Lei was a juror for The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) at the Golden Horse Film Festival.
He recalled that he felt amazed when he saw a whole table of Macau filmmakers being invited to the GHA and the After Party, as they were seated among famous industry stars like film director Hou Hsiao-hsien and star actress Shu Qi.
“I didn’t expect in just a few years, he’s now finished a feature film and returned to the GHA to compete for another award,” Lei told the Times. He is also happy seeing three local filmmakers competing in the well-recognized GHA.
In addition, the nominations also highlight the effectiveness of the Support Program for the Production of Feature Films of the Cultural Development Fund, since Kissing the Ground You Walked On is actually a beneficiary of the support program.
Lei also cited precedents, such as Sisterhood by local film director Tracy Choi and Empire Hotel by Ivo Ferreira, to support his comments. “Although not all beneficiaries were good, the structure of the program is in fact helpful [in nurturing film professionals],” the commentator remarked.
Explaining further, he said the program requires its beneficiaries to negotiate for collaborations with established film companies. “That’s why Choi’s film starred famous Hong Kong artistes such as Gigi Leung, Fish Liew, Stephanie Che and Elena Kong, given its collaborations with film star Louis Koo’s One Fool Film Production Limited,” he added.
It has been said that working with external experienced filmmakers will help Macau’s emerging filmmakers understand how a film industry actually works.
Judging from the reality in the past few years, he finds the support program useful in nurturing film professionals by giving them the opportunities to produce feature films. Gathering these experiences, these emerging filmmakers will have greater chances of standing on their own feet.
For example, Lei said, Choi and another film director, Arie Chan, have started their own projects after finishing the film sponsored by the support program.
Lei emphasized that the road was not easily paved. Taking Hong’s case as example, he pointed out that there are a lot of emerging directors each year in the Chinese-speaking film industry. Hong’s nomination at the GHA represents local filmmakers’ readiness to shine, Lei added. AL
